How to be miserable
Rick over at his blog called Shards of Consciousness has written a list of Five Ways to Make Yourself Miserable. (Sorry – the links no longer work.)
Ouch ouch ouch.
He’s touched on a few sore points there. I seem to regularly make an art form of these habits, to the point where I feel miserable if I’m not miserable.
Time to go out walking and birding.
That usually cures me for a while.
Thanks for the wake up call, Rick.
Check out my birding blog here.
Updated November 2013.
Thank you for the link, Trevor. Birding or doing something else you enjoy is perfect for putting you back in the space where you can look at the world objectively. The best single tool I know to learn how to not be miserable is meditating a few minutes each day and, if you are religious, praying. Someone much smarter than me once described praying as talking to God, and meditating as listening to God.
Good points Rick. I like your definition of prayer and meditation. Getting out into the outdoors with the plants and the birds and other aspects of the natural world is very uplifting for me – and necessary for my health too. I find it much easier to pray in the outdoors. I struggle a little with meditation. In our Bible study group last night (which I lead) we focussed on the verse “Be still and know that I am God.” At a participant’s suggestion we spent quite a deal of time in quiet meditation as a group – no one spoke. It was refreshing and uplifting and so appropriate for what we had been discussing.
Meditation is a skill that takes practice. Do a search on the net, though, and you’ll find that the health, psychological, and spiritual benefits make meditation well worth while to practice. Just a few minutes a day, carried out regularly, is enough to see benefits from it.
I am sure you are right Rick. In our crowded busy lifestyles these days it is becoming increasingly important to use time wisely. This includes deliberately making times just “to be.”